GCCI averts polls, picks local exec body unanimously

The Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry has finally succeeded in thwarting the election process for its local executive committee.

A statement issued by the GCCI states that the chamber received 30 nomination forms for 12 posts of members to the executive committee, of which, 15 candidates withdrew their forms while three forms were rejected on technical grounds. Earlier DNA had reported that Rupesh Shah, Samir Patel and Rakesh Shah were elected to the body unopposed as president, senior vice president and vice president, respectively.

Sources said that the 'influentials' had collected withdrawal forms from the candidates at the time of accepting their nomination forms itself. All the candidates, barring four, namely Rajesh Gandhi, Piyush Bhansali, Mahendra Desai and Samir Gawarwala, however, did not submit their withdrawal forms. Therefore, the powers that be had to agree to include Gandhi and Desai as regular members in the executive committee, while Bhansali and Gawarwala are to be made co-options and invitee members, informed sources further said. On one hand, while Bhansali wanted to be a regular member and not a co-option member, he tried to apply pressure from one of the leading industrialists of the state so as to fulfil his aspirations. On the other hand, the unhappy group agreed to the fact that Desai was included in the executive committee as a co-option member.

Bhansali's candidature was cancelled as the cheque he had paid towards deposit was not honoured by the bank. Therefore, KT Patel replaced Bhansali as a regular member of the GCCI's local executive committee.

The final list of the 12 member executive committee (local) of GCCI will include names of Vijay Shah, Ajay Patel, Nayan Seth, Shailesh Patwari, Durgesh Buch, Chintan Parikh, Bhavesh Patel, Mayur Desai, Babubhai Patel, Bhadresh Shah, Rajesh Gandhi and KT Patel.